What are my chances for Columbia SEAS, Duke, MIT, Northwestern, U of Chicago

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys. This is my first post. I'm currently a Junior living in California and I was wondering what are my chances for Columbia SEAS, Duke, MIT, U of Chicago, Northwestern, and Cornell.</p>

<p>Asian American (Korean)
Academics
SAT 1500 SAT2's none yet, but planning on Physics, Writing, 2C, American, and maybe Bio
AP Euro 5
AP Stats 5</p>

<p>Weighted GPA = 4.7 out of 4.0 ; top 5% of 2006 class</p>

<p>9-11 courses</p>

<p>9th
Adv. Orchestra A, A
Hnrs Bio A, A
English 1 A, A
Hnrs Alg 2 A, A
PE A, A
Spanish 2 A, A
Regional Studies, Health A, A</p>

<p>10th
Adv. Orchestra A, A
Hnrs Precalc A, A
AP European History A, A
AP Statistics A, A
Spanish 3 A, A
Hnrs English 2 A, A
Hnrs Physics A, A</p>

<p>11th
Adv. Orchestra A
AP BC Calc A
AP Physics A
AP English A
AP Bio A
AP American A</p>

<p>Researching Swarm Engineering with Caltech mentor
Wrestling Team JV/V
Varsity Track and Field
co-Founder/Vice president of Young Musicians Club
Science Club
Communications Chair Key Club
Volunteer at Malibu Water Chemistry
1st Degree Black Belt in Taw Kwon Do
attended NSLC Medicine and Healthcare
teacher/co-founder of Oriental Mission Church youth services (helping inner city children in math, english, science, history)
500+ hrs of COmmunity Service
Violin for 10 years
2nd Chair Young Nak Youth Orchestra and member of Young Nak Adult Orchestrra</p>

<p>Applied for NIH internship, RSI, and Cornell Nanobiotechnology (do they help?)
Pomona-Wisconsin Mathematics Award
Wrestling 140lb Silver Medal</p>

<p>awesome recommendations from teachers
can write awesome personal essays-had a lot of emotional/physical difficulties</p>

<p>So what are my chances?</p>

2

<p>If you keep up your current pace you should be in good shape for a number of acceptances. For MIT, you will want all your II's to be as close to 800 as you can manage, and your math SAT likewise. I like the fact that you are doing research - you might get an additional rec from your mentor. </p>

<p>Make sure that you don't neglect to prep for the writing component of the new SAT - that particular test can generate unexpected results. </p>

<p>Finally - visit your schools - and maybe through in a couple of LAC's for the heck of it. The schools on your list are very different, and you don't want to waste time and energy doing an application for a school that is not suitable for you. </p>

<p>Make sure you have a safety (financial as well) on your list - maybe UMich or some such.</p>

3

<p>Columbia SEAS- a reach.
Duke- 50/50 to Reach
MIT- Reach
Northwestern- 50/50 to a reach
U of Chicago- 50/50 to a reach</p>

<p>I am just using your numbers alone. You and thousands of other applicants will be applying to those schools, so you need to make yourself standout. I am not sure that your geographical location may help, but I think it may help a little because you are coming all the way from California and applying to schools on the east coast, with the exception of Northwestern, and U of Chicago.</p>

4

<p>I disagree</p>

<p>Columbia SEAS - safety/match; you should be in here
Duke - unsure; i don't know enough about their admissions
MIT - always a reach, but you have to show yourself as a person. otherwise you seem to fit the MIT profile
Nwestern - safety/match
UChicago - unsure; i don't know enough about their admissions either</p>

5

<p>U. Chicago is safe, the other ones are reaches for everybody. But you'll want to apply to some otehr schools. Don't worry about it now though, this is the last junior post I am ever responding to.</p>

6

<p>Streetlight, I was using his numbers and stats only. Just because albert123 has great numbers does not mean that Columbia is a safety for him. To be honest, Columbia is no one's safety given that their acceptance rate is extremely low, and they get thousands and thousands of applicants with the exact same SAT Scores, and class rank! To say that Columbia is a safety is doing a disservice, and possibly shows that you need to do a little more research.</p>

7

<p>Columbia SEAS - easiest IVY to get into.
Cornell Engineering - very good match.
Duke - Par with Cornell Engineering. If you are looking into Biomedical, it's one of the best.
MIT - reach reach reach.. not just you, but for everyone
Northwestern - match. If your interest truly lies in engineering, Michigan/Berkeley would be better choices
Chicago - very quirky school. good match</p>

8

<p>I've done plenty of research. Columbia SEAS has a 50% acceptance rate ED and around 30% acceptance rate RD. I know many people of equal and lower calibur than albert123 who have gotten in. You are not differentiating between Columbia College and Columbia SEAS (known as the Fu Foundation). They do NOT receive thousands and thousands of applicants to SEAS and it is one of the easier ones for him. The OP has also done research and is a west-coast applicant. The research is a huge plus at engineering schools and I would doubt that SEAS would deny him. So in fact, maybe you should do some research and find ou exactly waht you are talking about. Actually, you should do much more research because you used only numbers and stats as you said. Colleges look to more than that, buddy. </p>

<p>Also, if the OP gets into RSI and attends, MIT would quickly become a safety.</p>